Why Tesla Energy Is About To Take Over Texas!

Let's talk about how Tesla energy is going to save the state of Texas. A little bit dramatic, but not too terribly far off from the truth, really. Over the past year, Tesla's energy division has been making some moves into the Texas energy market, and this ranges from creating their own utilities company in the state, Tesla Energy Ventures, to recently gaining approval for their first virtual power plant network in Texas. There is a golden opportunity here for Tesla to show a reluctant state government what they are really capable of when it comes to energy delivery, and at the same time bring some much needed stability to an electrical grid that has struggled to deal with the unpredictable nature of our modern climate. This is what Tesla can do for Texas.

让我们谈谈特斯拉能源如何拯救德克萨斯州。可能有点夸张，但其实并不离谱。在过去的一年中，特斯拉的能源部门一直致力于进军德克萨斯州能源市场，他们不仅在该州成立了自己的公用事业公司“特斯拉能源投资公司”，还最近获得了在德克萨斯州建立第一个虚拟电力厂网络的批准。在这里，特斯拉有一个黄金机会向不情愿的州政府展示他们在能源交付方面真正的能力，同时为一个对于我们现代气候的不可预测性感到困扰的电网带来急需的稳定性。这就是特斯拉能为德克萨斯州做的。

The potential game changer that Tesla is currently introducing to the Texas market is called a virtual power plant. This is basically a method where Tesla can draw energy from individual batteries all across the state into the grid, with the goal of increasing the total amount of electricity available. This can have a positive effect in two key areas. For one, this excess power flowing into the grid can very quickly help to prop up the delivery system during periods of high stress when the supply of energy is lower than the demand, and second, an adequate volume of battery storage can actually eliminate the need for natural gas fired peaker plants, which are the current solution for dealing with these intermittent periods of high energy demand.

特斯拉目前引入德克萨斯市场的一个潜在改变游戏规则者被称为虚拟电厂。这基本上是一种方法，特斯拉可以从整个州的个体电池中提取能量注入电网，以增加总体可用电量。这可以在两个关键领域产生积极影响。首先，这种过剩的电力流入电网可以在供电短缺时迅速帮助维持供电系统，当供能不足以满足需求时，而且拥有足够的电池储存量实际上可以消除对天然气发电厂的需求，这些厂是目前处理这些间歇性高能耗时段的解决方案。

The Tesla Virtual Power Plant converts individual home power wall batteries into one giant battery by remotely taking control over the power wall and discharging the entire network into the grid simultaneously. Tesla has recently been granted approval to commence a statewide market design pilot, Virtual Power Plant in Texas. The pilot will involve power wall owners, pooling their stored energy together, and supplying the grid while getting paid for the energy they send. Each power wall holds around 13kWh of energy, which itself is about enough to power an average home for a day. Not a particularly large amount of energy, but when you start to combine hundreds or even thousands of these small batteries together, you get the effect of one large grid scale battery.

特斯拉虚拟电力站把各个家庭电池墙转化为一个巨大的电池，通过远程控制电池墙并同时将整个网络释放到电网中。特斯拉最近获得了在德克萨斯州进行全州市场设计试点的批准，即虚拟电力站。该试点将涉及电池墙的拥有者共同存储能量并向电网供应能量，同时获得能量的报酬。每个电池墙可储存约13kWh的能量，足以满足一天的普通家庭用电需求。虽然能量量并不算很大，但当将数百甚至数千个这些小型电池组合在一起时，就会产生一个大规模电网的效应。

Tesla has already deployed their virtual power plant in California, but they even have one of these networks operating in Japan. The California VPP has reached over 3000 households participating and the Japanese project in Okinawa has grown to over 300. And to run some numbers, even if those 3000 houses in California only had one single power wall each, that would total around 39 megawatts worth of electricity, which is the equivalent of 10 Tesla megapack units, which would represent over 10 million dollars worth of battery storage. And that's on the low end. It's likely that many of these houses would have two or more power walls active. You can have up to 10 connected at one house. Not every house with a power wall is instantly part of the VPP. Individual owners have to opt in first, and they receive a kickback for the energy they contribute at $2 per kilowatt hour, which is not much, but the more useful the VPP becomes, the more profitable. For example, some users in the California group are finding that in the summer months, when demand is at the peak, they can make enough money through VPP sessions to cover their monthly payment of the power wall and Tesla solar hardware. So we're talking about a very significant potential here, both in value and in functionality.

特斯拉已经在加利福尼亚部署了他们的虚拟电源站，但他们甚至在日本也有一个类似的网络在运行。加州的虚拟电源站已经有超过3000个参与的家庭，而冲绳的日本项目已经发展到了超过300个家庭。就算这3000个加州的家庭每家只有一块Powerwall，总电力也将达到约39兆瓦，相当于10个特斯拉Megapack单位的规模，价值超过1000万美元的电池储存装置。而且这仅仅是最低估计。很可能很多家庭会同时安装两块或更多的Powerwall。一个家庭最多可以连接10块Powerwall。并非每个安装了Powerwall的家庭都立即成为虚拟电源站的一部分，个人业主必须首先选择加入，并以每千瓦时2美元的价格获得能源贡献的回报。这不算多，但随着虚拟电源站变得更加有用，也将变得更加有利可图。例如，加州某些用户发现在夏季需求最高的时候，通过虚拟电源站可以赚足够的钱来支付他们Powerwall和特斯拉太阳能设备的每月费用。因此，我们在这里谈论的是一个非常重要的潜力，无论是在价值还是在功能上。

Though so far, Texas has proven to be a much more difficult market for Tesla to break into. The Texas power grid actually functions as an open market, so you get dozens of power companies competing in the state for customers. There are multiple entities handling power generation and utility retail. The Texas grid itself is completely independent of the rest of the country, and that plus the deregulated grid makes it a little difficult for a newer company to squeeze into that market. So Tesla had to deploy the lobbyists in Texas to help get their plan authorized through the state government, likely taking advantage of the disastrous power grid failures in 2021 to make the point that a more cohesive system would help in extreme weather events. Lobbying efforts from earlier this year got approval to run a demo VPP using 200 participants back in June 2022, which is reportedly what finally got Tesla their authorization to expand to the rest of the state. By the way, if you're enjoying the content we create here on the Tesla space and would like to support us, check out our Patreon page. We've got some exclusive perks for our Patreon supporters, and it helps us grow the team and continue producing this content.

迄今为止，对特斯拉来说，德克萨斯州证明是一个更难打入的市场。德克萨斯州电网实际上运作如同一个开放市场，因此在该州有数十家电力公司竞争争夺客户。多个实体负责发电和公共事业零售。德克萨斯州电网本身完全独立于其他地区，而且该州电网的去监管化使得一家较新的公司难以进入该市场。因此，特斯拉不得不派遣游说人员到德克萨斯州，帮助他们通过州政府获得计划授权，很可能利用2021年灾难性电网故障来说明一个更加有凝聚力的系统将有助于极端天气事件。今年早些时候的游说工作获得了2022年6月批准进行演示虚拟电力厂，据说这最终使特斯拉获得了扩展到该州其余地区的授权。顺便提一句，如果您喜欢我们在特斯拉领域创造的内容并且想要支持我们，请访问我们的Patreon页面。我们为我们的Patreon支持者提供一些独家特权，这有助于我们扩大团队并继续制作内容。

Now here is the million or maybe even billion dollar question. Would a virtual power plant actually be able to prevent the kind of grid failure that Texas saw in February 2021? In hindsight, we know that the primary reason for the Texas freeze of 2021 was a failure in their natural gas delivery system. The majority of energy in the state comes from burning natural gas, but when the temperatures suddenly dipped down to lows of negative 2 Fahrenheit or negative 19 Celsius, the pipes froze and the gas stopped flowing, which led to the power generation coming to a grinding halt.

现在，这是个价值数百万甚至数十亿美元的问题。一个虚拟电厂是否真的能够防止德克萨斯在2021年2月所经历的那种电网故障？事后来看，我们知道德克萨斯2021年冻结的主要原因是他们的天然气输送系统出现了故障。该州的大部分能源来自燃烧天然气，但当温度突然降至零下2华氏度或零下19摄氏度时，管道冻结，天然气停止流动，导致发电机械到达停滞状态。

This is actually the most ideal scenario for a Tesla big battery or virtual power plant to save the day. Most blackouts are going to be caused by a physical disruption to the distribution system, like storm damage to the power lines. If the cable connecting your house to the grid is broken, then a VPP isn't going to be of any use. That's when having your own power wall at home is key. But in the case where a power generation plant just goes down for whatever reason, that's when a battery storage system can come online and maintain the flow of electricity with a really good integrated system. This transition can be nearly seamless. Now, those batteries on their own are only going to hold out for a few hours, so it's not a total solution independently, but it can buy the power generation company some time to get things back up and running while keeping the lights on. Again, this would have been very beneficial in 2021 when the cold presented one big struggle for the natural gas distribution system, and then losing power on top of that made the problem infinitely more difficult to solve.

这实际上是特斯拉大电池或虚拟电力厂救命的最理想情景。大多数停电是由于分配系统遭受物理破坏引起的，比如电力线路受到暴风雨破坏。如果连接您家与电网的电缆断裂，那么虚拟电力厂将毫无用处。这时，拥有自己家里的电池储能系统就变得至关重要。但是，如果由于某种原因发电厂停电，那么电池储能系统就可以上线并通过一个非常好的集成系统维持电流的流动。这个过渡几乎可以无缝进行。现在，这些电池本身只能支持几个小时，所以它不能独立解决问题，但它可以为发电公司争取一些时间来恢复运行，同时保持灯亮着。再次强调，在2021年，当寒冷成为天然气分配系统的一大难题时，这将非常有益，当时还发生了停电，使问题变得无比困难。

Battery storage does still have the potential to replace conventional power plants entirely, as long as you properly integrate storage with renewable energy generation. In the wake of the Texas blackout, a number of state officials and media pundits quickly jumped on the opportunity to blame renewable energy for the failure. Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Fox News, it just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas, as well as other states, to make sure we will be able to heat our homes in the winter times and cool our homes in the summer times. Then Fox TV host Tucker Carlson piled on by claiming the windmills froze so the power grid failed, and yes, windmills did freeze, but wind energy across the entire state only makes up about 7% of the total power generation, so it's unlikely that they were the straw that broke the camel's back. All of the accounting done after the fact points to a cold weather failure of the natural gas supply chain as the primary factor.

只要将储能与可再生能源发电有效地融合，电池储能仍然有可能完全取代传统发电厂。在德克萨斯州停电事件后，许多官员和媒体人士迅速抓住机会将可再生能源归咎于这次故障。德克萨斯州州长格雷格·阿伯特在接受福克斯新闻采访时表示，这只是表明化石燃料对于德克萨斯州和其他州来说是必需的，以确保我们在冬天能够取暖，夏天能够冷却。然后，福克斯电视节目主持人塔克·卡尔森声称风力发电机结冰导致电网故障，虽然确实有风力发电机结冰的情况发生，但整个州范围内的风能发电只占总发电量的约7%，所以不太可能是导致事故的关键因素。所有事后的核算指向一个供应链失效是主要原因的天然气冷天故障。

Though this does highlight the major flaw in the way that we have been using renewable energy so far, because it is true that as soon as the windmill freezes or the solar panel gets buried in snow, the flow of energy comes to a halt, and that is a problem. That's why it's very important that we learn how to better integrate battery storage into green energy, so that on windy days, when the demand for electricity is lower, all of that excess energy generated by the windmill is being held in storage. So when the time comes, that windmill stops spinning, the battery kicks on and the electricity continues to flow. Now, that is going to take more than a few thousand people with power walls in their garage to make that happen on a statewide scale. It's going to take major utility companies to invest in grid level storage solutions like the Tesla megapack installations that we've seen in places like Australia, California, and Hawaii.

虽然如此，这确实突显了我们迄今为止在利用可再生能源方面存在的主要缺陷，因为当风力发电机结冰或太阳能电池板被雪埋起来时，能量的流动就会停止，这是个问题。这就是为什么我们非常需要学习如何更好地将电池储存与绿色能源相结合，这样在有风的日子里，当对电力需求较低时，风力发电机产生的多余能源可以被储存起来。所以当风力发电机停止旋转时，电池开始供电，电力继续流动。现在，要实现这一点，需要不仅仅是几千个人在车库里安装动力墙，还需要主要的公用事业公司投资像特斯拉Megapack一样的网格级储能解决方案，就像我们在澳大利亚、加利福尼亚和夏威夷等地看到的那样。

And this is likely a driving force behind why Tesla chose to launch their own retail electricity business in Texas, Tesla Energy Ventures. Since the Texas utility market is open to anyone, Tesla made the decision to throw their own hat into the ring. This way, they can work to ensure that more grid scale megapack installations arrive in Texas, and they can be used to form a strong backbone to the virtual power plant system as it continues to expand across the state.

这很可能是特斯拉选择在德克萨斯州推出自己的电力零售业务“特斯拉能源投资”背后的驱动力。由于德州公共事业市场对任何人开放，特斯拉决定参与其中。通过这种方式，他们可以努力确保更多的大规模移动电池组在德州投放，这些电池组可以成为虚拟电厂系统扩展至全州的坚实基础。

One of the first things that the company did after announcing their plan to enter the Texas energy market was confirm a massive 250 megawatt battery installation for the city of Austin. So we know that they are not messing around, and this is likely just the first of many grid scale energy projects to come.

在宣布进入德克萨斯能源市场计划后，公司做的第一件事就是确认为奥斯汀市建造一个庞大的250兆瓦电池装置。所以我们知道他们并不是在开玩笑，这很可能只是即将实施的许多大型能源项目中的第一个。

As always, we'd be very curious to hear from anyone out there who has participated in the Tesla virtual power plant, or anyone from Texas who's been using Tesla energy to try and secure their power supply. Let us know about your experiences down below in the comments section.

和往常一样，我们非常想听听有没有参与过特斯拉虚拟电力站的人，或者德州的使用特斯拉能源来保证电力供应的人的想法。请在下方评论区告诉我们你的经验。

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